By now, you’re familiar with what we’re trying to accomplish in these progress reports: We want to go beyond a simple “stock up, stock down” approach to fantasy rankings. Fantasy stocks are easy enough to keep track of. If someone’s doing well, then his stock is high. If not, it goes the other direction.

When you’ve done rankings and mock drafts for two straight months, you kind of wonder… why would anyone write about anything else? Sure there are draft grades, but those aren’t nearly as applicable to fantasy.

Then it hits you like a ton of bricks. Something like a… a stock watch. No. Everyone does that. What if you just called it something else. Yes, now you’re cooking with gas. What about a Progress Report? Perfect.

After unveiling their prospect lists last week, Ben and Craig reveal those who just missed, plus dark horses, and surprising exclusions.

Last week, Craig and I each gave a breakdown of our top 50 dynasty prospects, doing our best Bret Sayre impressions as we looked for a cause to discuss where 2014 draftees should rank, how some recent injuries have impacted the dynasty landscape and more.

We have some of the reasoning behind our rankings in last week’s post, and we further discussed our feelings in last week’s episode of TINO, too. But there’s always more to talk about when it comes to rankings, and so Craig and I have decided to milk this subject for all it’s worth this week as well.

Anyway, the Appels didn’t fall far from the tree (name humor) in this family, and sometimes we get the urge to rank things ourselves. Okay, fine, Ben gets the urge and I get a nervous breakdown. Nonetheless, what follows is at top 50 fantasy prospect ranking from each of us, and then an ensuing squabble about who did what wrong.

These minor leaguers' saw their stocks rise or drop when they changed organizations last week.

With one of the busiest trade deadlines in recent memory, we’ve all had a chance to opine on who won what trade, ask what the Rays were thinking, ogle the Oakland pitching staff and come to grips with Yoenis in Red Sox colors.

If one of your league-mates wants to buy high on any of these players, Ben and Craig would advice you to let him go.

Last week we brought you six players we’re buying in a dynasty format, so naturally, we thought it prudent to bring you another six-pack of players, this time focusing on who we’re selling, using the same long-term perspective.

Ben: Brock Holt, Everything, BOS
Brock Holt is a pretty decent baseball player. He can play both corner infield spots, both corner outfield spots and second base, and he can fake it in center or at short for a few games. He’s fast enough to be an occasional threat on the bases, he has a patient approach at the plate and he has the bat speed necessary to barrel up good velocity. There are lots of nice things you can say about Brock Holt (o/), and I think he’ll be a unique, valuable major leaguer for a long time.

Running down a half-dozen hitters and pitchers you might want to consider acquiring before your league's trading period ends.

The trade deadline happens soon. This means that if you’d like to change the personnel on your team without utilizing the waiver wire exclusively, you’ll need to make a deal before the deadline passes, in many leagues. Weird how that works, we know.

While the deadline is a crazy time in leagues of every composition, they’re especially hectic in dynasty formats. Good teams are often willing to go all-in, as winning a dynasty championship is a difficult feat to accomplish. Mediocre teams generally break one way or the other. And even teams who are out of it have every incentive to be quite active, as there’s always 2015 and beyond.

Breaking down minor leagues who could soar up the rankings into the top 50 fantasy prospects by season's end.

Bret Sayre’s midseason update of his Top 50 Dynasty League Prospects list is already 48 hours old, meaning it’s time to look ahead as to who may make the next rendition of the list.

Craig and I already namedropped a few prospects who we thought should’ve made this iteration of the rankings at the bottom of Bret’s piece, but we wanted to do something different here. Rather than argue for players who should’ve already received such an honor for Mr. Sayre, we want to help dynasty leaguers get ahead of the curve by calling attention to some prospects who could merit top-50 consideration by season's end.

Examining minor leaguers based on whether their fantasy arrows are pointing up, down, or sideways.

When you’ve done rankings and mock drafts for two straight months, you kind of wonder… why would anyone write about anything else? Sure there are draft grades, but those aren’t nearly as applicable to fantasy.

Then it hits you like a ton of bricks. Something like a… a stock watch. No. Everyone does that. What if you just called it something else. Yes, now you’re cooking with gas. What about a Progress Report? Perfect.

In part two of a two-part series, Ben introduces the foreign-born prospects you might not know.

With the MLB Futures Game rosters being announced last week, Craig and I thought it would be informative to take a look at the rosters and provide some base-level information on some of the prospects you might not necessarily know. Given that this column is geared toward deep and dynasty leagues, many of these names will be familiar, but there are always noobs getting into dynasty leagues that are out of their depth and tired of being pwned or whatever. This one’s for them.

Last week, Craig tackled Team USA and did an okay-ish job. This week, I break down the World Team, because I’m not a xenophobic monster.

In part one of a two-part series, Craig introduces the American-born prospects you might not know.

With the MLB Futures Game rosters being announced yesterday, Ben and I thought it would be informative to take a look at the rosters and provide some base-level information on some of the prospects you might not necessarily know. Given that this column is geared toward deep and dynasty leagues, many of these names will be familiar, but there are always noobs getting into dynasty leagues that are out of their depth and tired of being pwned or whatever. This one’s for them.

This week I’ll tackle the Team USA roster, with Ben following up next week with a look at the World roster. We’re happy for two straight weeks off from our bickering, too.